BOYS HOCKEY: Roche’s OT goal carries Blue Hills past Cohasset

Thursday

Senior defenseman Nick Roche scored midway through the 12-minute OT period Wednesday night as the Warriors eliminated the Skippers, 4-3, in the Div. 3 South Sectional first round.

There isn’t anything more instantaneous in sports than an overtime hockey game. In the blink of an eye a team can go from fighting for its life to wondering what happened, from biting its nails to breathing a sigh of relief.

Such was the case on Wednesday night when No. 6 seed Blue Hills Regional hosted No. 22 Cohasset in the first round of the Division 3 South Sectional boys tournament.

After three fast-paced, back-and-forth periods could not decide the outcome, senior assistant captain Nick Roche finally did. The Blue Hills defenseman capped an end-to-end rush with a top-shelf wrist shot with 5:40 left in the 12-minute overtime, lifting the Warriors to a 4-3 win.

Blue Hills (14-3-4) moves on to play No. 19 Holliston (12-9-1) in the quarterfinals (details TBA). Holliston already has pulled off two upsets, the latest a 4-3 conquest of No. 3 Abington on Wednesday.

Roche’s winner spoiled a valiant effort by a Cohasset squad that entered with a modest 10-10 record.

“I definitely think that we outplayed them,” Cohasset coach Bob Walsh said. “Our goalie, Brandon Winn, was outstanding. I told the guys that they didn’t deserve to lose. We played well enough to win, but Blue Hills is a good team and they got the goal that counted.”

Conversely, Blue Hills coach Steve Woods was pleased to just survive and advance.

“I’m getting too old for this,” he said. “That’s why they have the tournament games and this is what the tournament is like. It just has mood swings and momentum changes.”

All the momentum was with Blue Hills to start the game as the Warriors found the back of the net just 36 seconds after the opening faceoff when Nick Edwards scored off a feed from brother Josh.

“We’re usually the ones that let up an early goal and have to fight back,” said Woods. “We talked a lot about coming out with a lot of energy tonight and wanted to go out to a lead this time.”

Cohasset’s Chris Cohen answered about five minutes later to even the score, but the Edwards brothers struck again later in the period. This time it was Josh scoring off a pass from Nick.

The Warriors appeared to seize momentum in the second period when Nick Edwards scored short-handed to give Blue Hills a 3-1 lead, but that’s when things imploded for the Warriors.

The game became increasingly chippy as the referees had to break up a number of scrums, and the Warriors were whistled for two penalties in a span of 32 seconds.

Cohasset capitalized on its power-play opportunities with a goal from Adam Benson and another from Terence Doonan less than 20 seconds later to even the score. The Skippers nearly grabbed a lead, but a would-be goal came just seconds after the horn had sounded to end the second period.

“We kind of changed our line setup in that second period,” said Walsh. “One of the things I’ve tried to do this season is to throw in a curveball in every game this season so you don’t get set in your ways. It’s good to give the other team a little different view and the momentum started to change at the end of that period.”

The second period may have been wild and action-packed, but the third was played close to the vest by each team. Both goalies, Winn of Cohasset and Austin Carrel of Blue Hills, were excellent in the final period and made sure that the game would not end in regulation.

The win gives the Warriors some big-game experience and a taste of the madness that is overtime hockey, but Woods is aware of the potential pitfall of an OT playoff game.

“It’s good to get that experience and to find out what it feels like,” he said. “But we just played a lot of hockey. We won’t practice (Thursday) because the kids need a day off after that. We’ll probably play on Saturday and hopefully we’ll be ready to go.”

Tom Hinkley may be reached at thinkley@ledger.com.

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